Everything dealing with data is an Indicator in SERAM. The specialization and configuration of the indicator is done per reporting period.

There are two families of indicator types: persistent and non-persistent.

Persistent indicators do always, at some point, store real data in the system, so these are the ones where you can input data.

• Reporting indicators are the most common. They are used to collect various numeric input.
• Boolean indicators are used to collect "yes"/"no" data, such as whether a site holds a specific certification.
• Choice indicators provide a drop-down list of values.
• Factor indicators are used to store emission factors and similar data.

Non-persistent indicators produce data based on the data of other indicators. Any change to their inputs will cause them to update their data.

• Calculations are a powerful tool to compute values based on other indicators.
• Groups do not compute a numeric value, but they structure the indicators.

When activating an indicator on a reporting period, you pick the type and then you can configure the indicator; the available configuration options depend on the chosen indicator type.